Understanding the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key

Q:  What is UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities?

A: UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities is a property list key that indicates the specific hardware features your application requires in order to run on a device. Read the UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities section of the Information Property List Key Reference to get a complete list of these keys.

You should only include a key if you absolutely need to limit your application's target devices. Setting a key to false is not the same as leaving out the key. Therefore, each key effectively has three states:

• true: Devices must have the associated feature in order to run your application.

• false: Devices must not have the associated feature in order to run your application.

• non-existent: Devices may or may not have the associated feature in order to run your application (in other words, you don't care either way).

For instance:

• Setting the telephony key to true will prevent your application from installing for iPod touch users (because the device "must have" telephony capabilities).

• Setting the telephony key to false will prevent it from installing for iPhone users (because the device "must not have" telephony capabilities).

• Leaving out the telephony key will allow it to install regardless of the presence of telephony capabilities (because you "do not care" if the device has telephony capabilities).

Do not add a UIRequiredDeviceCapabilities key unless you actively need to restrict installation of your application based on the availability or lack of availability of a device feature.

See the Adding Keys to an Information Property List File section of the Information Property List Key Reference to learn how to add keys to your Info.plist.

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